Mar 31 An Image of an Apple Tree

Above you can see an image of an apple tree. It appears to be a beautiful tree filled with luscious looking apples. If you like apples or apple trees this is an image that is likely to give you a good feeling. If you were hungry and someone asked you if you would prefer an image of a beautiful apple tree or if would you prefer to be standing in front of an actual apple tree that may not be quite as beautiful as the image of an apple tree and the apples might have a few worms and bruises I suspect you would chose the actual tree because you can't eat an image of apples on a tree. It's impossible for the image of an apple tree to bear real fruit.

The people on the political right in this country have been sold an image in the past that has not produced what it claimed it would produce so many members of the party have now seen that what they have been sold has been nothing but an image so they have become angry because they didn't get what they thought they had been promised. This made them vulnerable to a new image, one that is even less pretty than the previous image and unlike the pretty image of the apple tree is instead is an image that is animalistic and barbaric in it's nature. This new image just like the old image and also like the image of the apple tree is just an image and therefore it will be unable to bear fruit.

For a long time there have been some on the political left who have believed in a utopian fantasy but the utopian fantasy is also just an image only unlike the barbaric image that attracts those on the right this image is more beautiful like the beautiful image of an apple tree but just as the image of the apple tree the utopian image that captivates many on the left is also just an image and therefore it also is unable to bear fruit.

A brilliant man named Barack Obama has said that change is difficult and I see that to be the reality. Whenever change is initiated it draws out the resistance to change and that resistance makes change difficult. If there is a necessity or an attempt for a big change then there will also be a big resistance. We are now in a time when there are many things that are not working as well so there is a need for great change. What we are seeing playing out on the political left and the political right is the resistance to change.

If we want to eat then we are going to need to prepare the soil and plant and nurture the seeds. In the process of doing this we would need to be as aware of as many things as we can and also be prepared for the unknown so that we can create the greatest potential of growing a tree that has the capacity to bear fruit. If we want to create change than we will need to be as inclusive as possible because the more inclusive we are the less resistance we will create and the less resistance we create the easier it will be to initiate change.

Everybody needs hope. But if that hope is based on an image, a fantasy or an illusion what you would then have is the illusion of hope and not real hope. The illusion of hope is not real, it's just an illusion and to believe in an illusion is not likely to bring about a sense of hope but instead would likely cause a sense of hopelessness and despair because if something is an illusion it can't work and to is therefore destined to fail.

Evolution is the way of life. Living things evolve. We can either assist in that evolution or we can resist by escaping into illusions. When you create illusions in order to escape reality what is real doesn't go away but in attempting to escape reality things are allowed to fester and grow and therefore making it even more difficult to address the changes that are needed. A lot of people want simplistic solutions to complex issues and it can be easier to escape into an illusion than to make the effort to appreciate and address the complexity of things.

We are in a time where it is becoming increasingly clear to anyone paying attention that certain things are real and true and other things are not. There are lots of people who want to resist change but since the nature of life is to evolve the illusions to which certain people are clinging are being exposed for what they are. Change is difficult but it is the way of life. The more that people become clear on what is real and what isn't the easier it will become for us to evolve. I see it as my responsibility to do whatever I can to help clarify the difference between reality and illusion. As a visual artist I love looking a beautiful images but I have the capacity to discern the difference between what is real and true and what is just an image and only a real living thing has the capacity to bear fruit.